Zary: Moving on to PGA Tour is name of the game for Mackenzie

“I wish,” the 34-year-old Mackenzie, a SIGA Dakota Dunes Open participant this week, says with a chuckle. “Unfortunately, I have no ties to the name.”

Even so, Brock Mackenzie has had a long association with the tour. He’s one of the more seasoned golfers on the Canadian circuit still looking to move on to the PGA Tour.

Mackenzie — a collegiate standout at the University of Washington and 2004 finalist for the prestigious Ben Hogan Award — has had numerous stints on the Web.com Tour, but he hasn’t been able to take his game to that next level and earn status on the PGA Tour. He’s watched many of his fellow competitors make the leap.

“I just can’t seem to make the jump,” says Mackenzie, a native of Yakima, Wash., who spends the winter playing in Scottsdale, Ariz.

The 12-year-pro is back playing north of the border after placing No. 97 last year on the Web.com Tour money list at $47,335. His best year was 2007 when he was 53rd on the Nationwide Tour with $118,247.

Mackenzie has won over $188,000 on the Canadian circuit, his best years coming in 2014 ($56,222, fourth in Order of Merit) and 2010 ($67,428, third in Order of Merit).

“I’ve learned a lot,” he says of his pro experience. “When it comes down to me, it’s putting. I hit the ball great on the Web.com Tour last year and I just struggled with the flat stick. That seems to be the common denominator. I got some lessons with my putter before the start of the year and I’m hoping to kind of show some signs of improvement on the putting green this year.”

Watching many of his co-competitors move on has been both encouraging and discouraging.

“It’s a little bit of both,” he admits. “It’s motivating because half of those guys are my friends. They’re guys I was all-American at college, played on Walker Cups with them. It’s awesome to see them winning FedExCup titles and major championships, but it’s also a little discouraging because I want to be out there with them.

“And I’m just not there right now. Hopefully all it takes is a couple of good events to get back up there.”

Pro golf can be a grind. Trying to get onto the PGA Tour isn’t easy. There are some very good golfers who aren’t able to enjoy the success they maybe deserve, for whatever reason.

Golf can eat you up and spit you out.

“There are several golfers,” points out Mackenzie. “I could go down the list of guys who have enough game to be on the Web or PGA Tour but have never made it.”

Take John Ellis. He has won over $232,000 in Canada over an eight-year span, including $111,534 in 2008 when he dominated on the Canadian Tour. Ellis has posted a top-25 finish on the PGA Tour in 2010, playing in nine PGA Tour events in his career.

“For him to never have Web.com status is amazing to me,” says Mackenzie, adding that Calgary’s Wes Heffernan is another great player with numerous wins out here but he’s never had full Web.com status.

“It’s weird because you see guys that you don’t think should ever be on the Web.com but are and stay up there and then you have guys who just never make it, whether it’s Q-school and they get themselves too worked up for it or what.”

Mackenzie mastered Dakota Dunes during Monday’s Pro-Am with a course record 60, but he settled for a 73 Thursday. He’ll need to go deep Friday to make the cut.

“The last couple of years, I’ve played some of the best golf I’ve ever played,” says Mackenzie, a 6-foot-3, 180-pound multi-sport athlete who was a point guard on his high school basketball team and also played soccer.

“It’s hard to be like, ‘I should probably give it up’ when I’m playing some of the best golf that I’ve played. It’s one of those things where hopefully I don’t have to worry about it. But, if the day comes, I have a good (economics) degree and I have a lot of people in Seattle and Scottsdale I can lean on and if that day comes, it comes.”

Related

Comments

We encourage all readers to share their views on our articles and blog posts. We are committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion, so we ask you to avoid personal attacks, and please keep your comments relevant and respectful. If you encounter a comment that is abusive, click the "X" in the upper right corner of the comment box to report spam or abuse. We are using Facebook commenting. Visit our FAQ page for more information.